Ruth Bader Ginsburg Working Out With Stephen Colbert Is Your New Favorite Thing

Abby Gardner
Updated
Stephen Colbert sat down with Supreme Court Justice and all-around icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg for an interview and to try her famous workout routine.

It's safe to say Stephen Colbert had a more exciting Wednesday night than you: He worked out with 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—and it was magnificent. Clad in a sweatshirt, though minus one of her iconic scrunchies that reads "Super Diva," Justice Ginsburg sat down with Colbert for a quick interview before sweating it out.

Honestly, we would all do well to approach life with the dry wit and underlying hint of side-eye that Ginsburg gives Colbert. She is truly a national treasure in so many ways. When commenting on what she has in common with the Notorious B.I.G given that so many now refer to her as the Notorious RBG, she says, "We have one thing, clear, in common, and that is that we are both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York."

Colbert jokes that they also both love words—and are implicated in Tupac's murder. He also jokes that Ginsburg is in the new Ocean's Eight movie, complete with a doctored poster and ask her what Rihanna is really like. She doesn't miss a beat before answering, "I'd like to find out because this is the first I've heard of it." And now all we can think about is the two of them hanging for an afternoon. Before hitting the weight room and "getting shredded," Colbert and Ginsburg also tackle the divisive issue of whether or not a hot dog is a sandwich. Spoiler: By his definition, it is.

Then the pair hits the gym at D.C.'s Watergate Hotel with Ginsburg's longtime trainer, Bryant Johnson, for a series of exercises we highly doubt most 85-year-olds could handle. There's all-important stretching, some impressive planks (by Ginsburg, natch), free weights, TRX bands, treadmill, squats, and pushups (during which Colbert is chastised for doing them on his knees.) So what kind of tunes does a Supreme Court Justice work out to? Opera.

When Colbert tries to throw on C+C Music Factory's "Everybody Dance Now," Ginsburg wants none of it. "I would never, ever exercise to that noise. Let's shut it off." Of her musical tastes, Johnson told The Washington Post, “When you know opera like she knows opera, it gets you going. It has a beat.”

Listen, if it works for the Notorious RBG, we're willing to add some opera recordings to the workout playlist. And we're even more excited than ever to see more about this amazing woman's life when her documentary debuts in May.

And if you're interested in replicating RGB's exact workout, you can see it here.